Let me take you back to the moment I laid eyes on the best TV picture I’ve ever seen. I was on a visit to Boston, partly to meet up with colleagues and partly to see my family who still live in my childhood hometown. It was a beautiful, crisp fall day scented by the brisk New England breeze that makes you crave hot apple cider. I made my way to Cambridge on the T (Boston’s subway, for the uninitiated), crunched through the leaves that had fallen in Central Square, and walked into a dark TV test lab to find my colleague standing in front of the 65-inch Sony A95L QD-OLED TV, which is now over $500 off. He was mesmerized, and I quickly was the same.
On screen was a nighttime shot of a town with occasional fireworks going off in the distance. Not an earth-shattering action sequence, but a simple tableau. It was stunning. The pinpoint accuracy of the streetlights that illuminated only what they were supposed to with no unnecessary blooming, and the bright sparkle of the fireworks as they exploded on screen against a perfect, dark sky that glimmered with stars took my breath away. I’ve seen many TVs over my years in A/V, and there are a few that hold a fond spot in my heart, from Samsung rear-pros to Pioneer plasmas. Nothing has ever looked better than the Sony A95L.
Is the current $3,000 sale price for the 65-inch Sony A95L low? In comparison to its direct QD-OLED competitor, the Samsung S95D, absolutely not. During Cyber Monday, the Samsung can be found for $700 less than the Sony. But I’d argue that the Sony brings extra, intangible magic to whatever is on its screen. Well, maybe not intangible. Sony’s processing has always been at the head of the class, and with a well-executed product like the A95L, it stands out.
Will we see a successor to the A95L? Sony hasn’t made any announcement yet, instead focusing on the rebrand of its TV line under the Bravia name and the release of its also excellent Bravia 9 mini-LED TV. There’s always the chance we’ll hear about a new model next spring (and almost certainly nothing will come out of CES 2025), but it’s hard to imagine something that will best the best TV of them all.
